Cool down Zen
There are some problems i'd like to see solved here before too much posts are mislead.
1)Your statement about your friend was ambiguous. Let's try to clear them up
 a)What does your friend buy or sell (items, in game money)?
 b)What does he pay / is he paid (in game money, real money)?
 c)Does E-bay have anything to do with that?
 d)Is he rich in game or in real life?
2)
DO YOU PEOPLE ACTUALLY KNOW ANYTHING??? the ''crackdown'' had nothing to do with e-bay but the 5,000 players were banned because of 'MACROS' and NOT e-bay....
You exaggerate very much, and in a very insulting way..... that is in my opinion a very bad idea.
Please don't say people don't know anything, especially not if it was because something that by far not the whole world must be aware of like a "crackdown" in Runescape (I have never even seen that game, and i don't think i am stupid because of that)
Just politely say if someone was wrong, and in best case even give us a source for what you say, so everyone can say that you are right or it will be a case of predication against predication.
3) I don't think anyone expected your friend to buy real money for real money from E-bay. You see how obviously that does not make any sense (except something weird or illegal is going on perhaps? however, please don't go any further into this topic, it would not help on what we are really talking about here)
This is just a try to raise this conversation to a more pleasent and informative level, please don't take it as an insult.